A Response to..........To Protect and Serve

“The concept of African American literacies as I explore it here refers to ways of knowing and acting and the development of skills,vernacular expressive arts and crafts that help females to advance and protect themselves and their loved ones in society.”(680) Constantly adapting to meet the needs of racist influenced life are African cultural forms such as storytelling, conscious manipulation of silence and speech, and other verbal and nonverbal practices. These nontraditional cultural forms are important pieces to African American literacy. The specialized pieces of African American female literacy are diverse but much needed. Literacy is breath to our quest of helping cultivate a better world.

In To Protect and Serve, the concept of “Mother Tongue” is presented. The woman is the child's first teacher. Before pre-school or kindergarten there is the womb.The term mother tongue in the simplest form can describe the inherited language or social condition/ing of one's mother. The idea of mother tongue is grounded on the presumption that literacy acquisition is stimulated through utilizing the tongue of nurture in literacy. (678) Terminating mother tongue literacy is unhealthy for African American society and identity development.The African American woman is continually exploited in American culture. This exploitation has corrupted and traumatized generations of black females and their families. The stereotypes that find themselves so easily embedded in modern day pop culture support the negative ideas that young Black females often find themselves struggling with. For example,the stereotype of a Black female being a “heartless Nigger bitch”, or a “wench”. This stereotype was used to refer to an enslaved female whose sexual behavior was loose and immoral. (676) The White supremacy views supported by this stereotype suggested that Black females could love no one,including their own children. The stereotype also suggested that these women enjoyed and were available for sexual exploitation. These stereotypes have passed the test of time thanks to the slave owners,who operated under White supremacy views.

In closing, I ask you to type “black girls” into a search engine. The things that are found and presented at the top of the page mostly contain pornography. Turn the television on and the exploitation of our ancestors can be seen streaming live but the stories of our sister's struggle are hard to find. As African American females we must exercise various examples of literacy so we may better empower our sisters in the American struggle of life identity.

Works Cited 

Richardson, Elanie. To Protect and Serve. National Council of Teachers for English, 2002